Scratch Grain- Why it's useful in flock management and nutrition

[Gold Griffin Chicken Mom]

Quote:
from post #2

I was at TSC today and they had pond fish food ( or some kind of fish (can't remember now)) with 32% protein. It was marked down so I bought a bag remembering what I had read on this thread.

So I am trying to add more scratch fo keep my flock fuller, longer and thought when I saw the 32% protein I would a a small amount of this.

Any thoughts?

Thanks

That sounds like the Purina Catfish food I got awhile back. You might have an issue getting your older birds to eat it. My birds from this year squawk "yippee! food!" and eat all I give them. My laying hens, who could benefit from the extra protein, give me nasty looks and wait for the REAL food. The catfish feed looks like Cap'n Crunch cereal. The little balls of food apparently float well in a pond. I guess if I had regular feed throughs I could dampen the food. I think the layers are just holding out for better treats... Like mealworms.

 

[chickened]

You should read the ingredients for fish feed they are using soymeal as a substitute for the more expensive fishmeal. Fishmeal is available but usually in bulk.
Quote:
from post #2

I was at TSC today and they had pond fish food ( or some kind of fish (can't remember now)) with 32% protein. It was marked down so I bought a bag remembering what I had read on this thread.

So I am trying to add more scratch fo keep my flock fuller, longer and thought when I saw the 32% protein I would a a small amount of this.

Any thoughts?

Thanks

 

[FrenchToast]

What about increasing the protein with Ferret food ? That is very high in protein as well !

 

[elmo]

Quote:
Unless you make your own feed, your chicken feed probably does have something in it that came from China. It's a really widespread practice, but we only find out about it when some of the ingredients turn out to be contaminated:

http://articles.cnn.com/2007-05-01/us/recall.poultry_1_rice-protein-wheat-gluten-pet-food?_s=PM:US

 

[Clay Mudd]

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Reason #657 to make your own feed.

 

[chickened]

Cat food is real good for supplementing protien.
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[elmo]

Quote:

You still have the same issue with cat food as you do with a processed chicken feed. Where do the ingredients come from and what else might be in there? It's not very long ago that melamine from China killed many dogs and cats here in the U.S.

 

[giggleboxfarm]

In regards to cat food, it has a long list of processed junk just like chicken feed. I want real things, preferably local as well. Mealworms is looking like a good protein supplement that I can raise for my chickens. They get alot of BOSS too, so I'm going to try to plant a bunch this spring.

 

[gophert]

I am currently feeding a 1:1:1 mix of organic Countryside feed, BOSS, and millet (BOSS and millet obtained wholesale and cost less per pound that Countryside, which was my previous feed). Curious what others think of this mix.

 

[ChickenAl]

Quote:
This is why I feed our chickens Countryside Organics and supplement with UltraKibble. They also get scratch now, daily, and occasional supervised ranging. Our girls each still lay an egg a day, and we are almost in December.

If you start with quality feed, then I can't see the need to supplement with Cat food or anything else. I also believe they eat less of the higher quality feed than they would of the highly processed stuff.